Now is the third book in the Once series, charting the way one Jewish boy manages to survive the Second World War, against incredible odds.

***Spoilers ahead for the first two books***

At the end of the second book, poor Felix has just seen his foster mother and friend hung in the town square for what amounts to 'looking at the Nazi officers a bit funny'as far as I could tell.

In Now, we jump straight to modern day Australia, which kind of surprised me. It's also narrated by a young girl, instead of Felix. It quickly turns out that the girl is Felix's granddaughter and her name is Zelda too. Zelda has come to live with Felix while her parents are in Africa and she's having a hard time with bullies at school.

If you've read Once and Then, you'll know that Felix also has some experience of bullies. The people that bullied Felix were six million times more deadly than the bullies who are being mean to Zelda, but Zelda's bullies still sound pretty awful.

So obviously we find out that Felix survived the war and we also find out how he managed to survivedand what he did after the war. I was really glad because holy shit, did that kid have some evil crap thrown at him in the first two books, so it was nice to see that Felix had managed to rise above the things that had happened to him (as much as anyone can) and had made a success of his life.

As the book progresses, we see that maybe the things that happened to Felix in the war are still affecting him today and when a natural disaster strikes he and Zelda have to work out what's most important.

I'm not sure if I enjoyed this book as much as the first two. I preferred Felix's narration to Zelda's and Zelda's situation, although horrible, couldn't really compare to the horror of what Felix went through.

I guess Morris Gleitzman initially meant for this to be the final book in the series. It has a lot of closure about it. So when I found out that there were two further books, it kind of spoiled them a little for me. After all, the majoity of the tension in the first two books comes from not knowing whether Felix will survive. I think I'm still going read the next two books though - the writing and characters are so good as I really want to see what will happen.

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine and it’s a chance for us all to highlight the upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating. This week, my Waiting on Wednesday pick is Get It Together, Delilah by Erin Gough. Here's the blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Delilah Green wouldn't have chosen to do her last year of school this way, but she figures it's working fine.

While her dad goes on a trip to fix his broken heart after her mom left him for another man, Del manages the family cafe. Easy, she thinks. But what about homework? Or the nasty posse of mean girls making her life hell? Or her best friend who won't stop guilt-tripping her? Or her other best friend who might go to jail for love if Del doesn't do something?

But really, who cares about any of that when all Del can think about is beautiful Rosa who dances every night across the street. . . . Until one day Rosa comes in the cafe door. And if Rosa starts thinking about Del, too, then how in the name of caramel milkshakes will Del get the rest of it together?

Everybody deserves to have something good in their life. At least Once.

Once is the heartbreaking, harrowing but ultimately hope-filled story of Felix, a ten year old Polish Jewish boy living through the Nazi occupation of Poland and the Holocaust. He lives in an orphanage in the Polish mountains - his parents, who are booksellers, left him there when they went off to solve all sorts of book-related emergencies (according to Felix).

Life in the orphanage sounds pretty sad and desperate - the conditions are pretty basic, there's notmuch food and thenunsare pretty strict - but very gradually you learn the truth - that the nuns doing all they can to keep the Nazis away from the orphanage so keep the children (including a number of Jewish children) safe.

Gradually, Felix comes to realise the truth about the Holocaust and the Nazis and what is happening to the Jews in Poland (spoiler alert: nothing nice). We're shown some of the atrocities of the Holocaust through the eyes of a ten year old child which somehow makes them all the more horrifying.

One of the most heartbreaking things I found about the story (apart from the whole Holocaust thing, which obviously gets top spot) is the way Felix makes up stories in his head as a way of trying to explain away the awful things that are happening around him. It's just so sad. And his horror and bravery when he realises what's going on - you really forget that this is just a little kid.

Even though there have been a lot of stories written about the Holocaust, this book ought to be required reading. It was one of the biggest (if not the biggest) atrocities of the twentieth century and I don't think it's the kind of subject that will ever be 'done with'. And that's the whole point. As long as we keep reminding ourselves about what happened, then maybe we stand a chance of not repeating our mistakes.

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine and it’s a chance for us all to highlight the upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating. This week, my Waiting on Wednesday pick is Pretty Fierce by Kieran Scott. Here's the blurb:An action-packed, edge-of-your-seat novel about a teen who, when backed into a corner, fights back, from the author of What Waits in the Woods

Kaia has been on the run her whole life. The daughter of professional assassins, she knows danger-and she'll do anything to survive. After her parents vanished during a job gone bad, Kaia's spent the last year in hiding, trying to blend in as an ordinary teenager, and there's no one who makes her feel more normal, more special, than her boyfriend, Oliver.

But when she's jumped by a hit man and Oliver catches her fighting back, Kaia's secret is exposed. In a split-second decision, she flees her small town, taking Oliver with her. With hit men stalking their every move, can Kaia and Oliver protect each other long enough to uncover the mysteries of her past?

We are seventeen and shattered and still dancing. We have messy, throbbing hearts, and we are stronger than anyone could ever know…

When We Collided is the story of Jonah and Vivi and how they meet one summer and their lives kind of ... collide. Jonah and his older siblings are acting as surrogate parents to their younger siblings after the death of their father left their mum in a spiral of depression. And Vivi has problems ofher own, however much she might try to sweep them under the carpet.

When We Collided is, on the face of it, quite a sweet summer book, but it has deeper undertones than a lot of the flim-flam summer books out there. It deals a lot with mental health issues - grief, depression and bipolar disorder - in a way that feels very real, sympathetic and sensitive.

Vivi and Jonah's romance was a complicated one for me. There were aspects that I really liked - they could be really sweet - but a lot of the time they didn't really mesh very well together. Jonah was so stressed-out and straight-laced and Vivi was so out-there that their whole relationship seemed just to be based on physical attraction. Which is fine and everything, except that they were also declaring their instalove for each other and I just didn't see what they were basing it on. There were swoony moments and I did root for them but I felt the ending the author gave them was fitting.

As for Jonah and Vivi as individual characters, I much preferred Jonah to Vivi. I felt he had a lot more depth to him than Vivi did, what with trying to balance caring for his younger siblings (who were hilarious and adorable) as well as trying to save his dad's restaurant from financial ruin. Vivi, for all she had a fairly chequered past, came across as part Manic Pixie Dream Girl, part bland porridge.

I think I'd recommend this book - it was a nice enough readfor when you're kicking back by the pool on your summer holiday.

The Jewel means wealth. The Jewel means beauty. The Jewel means royalty. But for girls like Violet, the Jewel means servitude. Purchased at the surrogacy auction by the Duchess of the Lake and greeted with a slap to the face, Violetquickly learns of the brutal truths that lie beneath the Jewel’s glittering facade: the cruelty, backstabbing, and hidden violence that have become the royal way of life.

Violet must accept the ugly realities of her existence... and try to stay alive. But then a forbidden romance erupts between Violet and a handsome gentleman hired as a companion to the Duchess’s petulant niece. Though his presence makes life in the Jewel a bit brighter, the consequences of their illicit relationship will cost them both more than they bargained for.

I was really surprised at how much I liked this book! It was recommended to me, but the cover made it look like The Selection (ugh) or Matched (snore), so I didn't bother picking it up for ages. I'm really gladI did in the end though, because it was pretty great.

On the face of it, The Jewel has an awful lot in common with other dystopians: girl born into abject poverty, change of circumstance, makeover scene, yadda yadda yadda. However, the storyline is a bit more gruesome than other dytopians - girls sold into slavery for their reproductive organs - and the worldbuilding was a lot better than other dystopians. I rattled through this book in little over a day.

I liked Violet and I especially liked her relationship with Ash, even though it was totally instalove-tastic. Violet despairs of her situation, but she never gives up and rolls over. Even at the end, when it looks like all is lost, she clings onto hope.

As the story progresses, you learn more about the horrible things that are happening in The Jewel and it actually elevated what would otherwise have been a fairly bog-standard dystopian to almost Hunger Games levels of cool.

Sasha Savage is in love with Jack - a handsome, charming ... vegetarian. Which wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that Sasha's family are very much 'carnivorous'. Behind the family facade all is not as it seems. Sasha's father rules his clan with an iron fist and her mother's culinary skills are getting more adventurous by the day. When a too-curious private detective starts to dig for truths, the tight-knit family starts to unravel - as does their sinister taste in human beings . . .

So this was a pretty good book about afamily with a creepy secret- they're cannibals. This isn't a spoiler, by the way: even though the word cannibal isn't actually used until about halfway through the book, it's pretty obvious what the Savage's 'feasts' consist of.

I liked the dark humour the author uses to lift what would otherwise be quite a horrific storyline. The humour probably isn't to everyone's taste (no pun intended), but I liked it.

The characters seem very ... ordinary, considering their horrible culinary tastes. Sasha was really well-adjusted, considering grisly murders took place in her house on a regular basis, and I liked that she rebelled against her family by becoming vegetarian. I wasn't really surprised her brother was a sociopath, though.

I guess if I had to criticise, I'd say that not much really happens. the main plot revolves around the fact that a private investigator is poking around Mr Savage's business dealings and that Sasha is dating a vegetarian. You just know that someone is goingtoend up in the cooking pot at the end and while I liked the twist at the end, there wasn't enough plot in the rest of the book to really excite me.

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine and it’s a chance for us all to highlight the upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating. This week, my Waiting on Wednesday pick is Things I Should Have Known by Claire LaZebnik. Here's the blurb:

An unforgettable story about autism, sisterhood, and first love that s perfect for fans of Jenny Han, Sophie Kinsella, and Sarah Dessen.

Meet Chloe Mitchell, a popular Los Angeles girl who s decided that her older sister, Ivy, who s on the autism spectrum, could use a boyfriend. Chloe already has someone in mind: Ethan Fields, a sweet, movie-obsessed boy from Ivy s special needs class. Chloe would like to ignore Ethan s brother, David, but she can't: Ivy and Ethan aren t comfortable going out on their own so Chloe and David have to tag along.

Soon Chloe, Ivy, David, and Ethan form a quirky and wholly lovable circle. And as the group bonds over frozen yogurt dates and movie nights, Chloe is forced to confront her own romantic choices and the realization that it s okay to be a different kind of normal.

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine and it’s a chance for us all to highlight the upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating. This week, my Waiting on Wednesday pick is Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde. Here's the blurb:

Three friends. Two love stories. One convention.

Charlie likes to stand out. She s a vlogger and actress promoting her first movie at SupaCon, and this is her chance to show fans she s over her public breakup with co-star Reese Ryan. When internet-famous cool-girl actress Alyssa Huntington arrives as a surprise guest, it seems Charlie s long-time crush on her isn t as one-sided as she thought.

Taylor likes to blend in. Her brain is wired differently, making her fear change. And there s one thing in her life she knows will never change: her friendship with her best guy friend Jamie no matter how much she may secretly want it to. But when she hears about a fan contest for her favorite fandom, she starts to rethink her rules on playing it safe.Queens of Geek, an empowering young adult novel by Jen Wilde, is all about fandom, friendship, and finding the courage to be yourself.

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine and it’s a chance for us all to highlight the upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating. This week, my Waiting on Wednesday pick is The Other F-Word by Natasha Friend. Here's the blurb:

Milo has two great moms, but he's never known what it's like to have a dad. When Milo's doctor suggests asking his biological father to undergo genetic testing to shed some light on Milo's extreme allergies, he realizes this is a golden opportunity to find the man he's always wondered about.

Hollis's mom Leigh hasn't been the same since her other mom, Pam, passed away seven years ago. But suddenly, Leigh seems happy—giddy, even—by the thought of reconnecting with Hollis's half-brother Milo. Hollis and Milo were conceived using the same sperm donor. They met once, years ago, before Pam died.

Now Milo has reached out to Hollis to help him find their donor. Along the way, they locate three other donor siblings, and they discover the true meaning of the other F-word: family.